Can't remember the year, but Villa beat Watford 4-0. Graham was managing them at the time, and I remember as he walked up the touchline Villa fans were leaning out to shake his hand and he was all smiles.....then he got a massive chant of 'there's only one Graham Taylor' and 'Graham, give us a wave'.....and even before that, when he'd left Villa, he wrote a letter to the Evening Mail or Sutton Coldfield news, can't remember which, saying how much he'd enjoyed his time and what it meant to him....A class act. He will be missed.
My Dad just rang me to see if I'd heard the news and he reminded me of this story of great kindness and humility from SGT.Ian, a friend had cystic fibrosis which meant although he was an avid Villa fan his condition wouldn't allow him to get to a game. My Dad wrote to Villa, Steve Stride if he remembers rightly, to see if Ian could get along to Bodymoor Heath one day for a bit of a behind the scenes visit. Ian had several complications with his CF and wasn't expected to live into his 30s.Graham Taylor replied personally to my old man (I'm now hoping somewhere at their home he's kept that letter, I did ask him!) promising to fulfil Ian's dream of meeting some players and watching them play & train. Well, I can't even begin to describe what SGT ended up doing with Ian. I know he spent the day at BH and was put up at The Belfry by Villa for a couple of nights with his family. They were picked up on the Saturday and travelled with the team on a Flights coach to an away game, memory is failing, can't remember which one but we think it was Middlesborough. Ian sat next to SGT all the way there and back, I've seen some old Polaroids of him playing cards with some of the players. This meant Ian was away from his family for about 24 hours, CF sufferers need to be massaged and helped with dealing with the mucus build up in the respiratory tract & lungs. Ian's Mum usually helped with this but SGT said if she showed him how to do it he'd make sure him and the physios dealt with it, she can have the day off.Ian died about 6 months after that amazing experience.SGT came to Ian's funeral, no mean feat considering it was in Surrey. On Ian's coffin was a picture of him laughing and smiling with SGT.
A true gentleman.I had the pleasure of meeting Graham in Venice when I was living in Italy. My parents were visiting me and it was a hot day in May, very humid. He was with his wife Rita, a lovely lady, and I spotted him as we were strolling around. His first time at Villa was when I was very young, so I don't remember those days very clearly, but I had a season ticket for the 2002-2003 season, and knew the importance of the man to the club. And the club to the man.We politely approached him, and I thanked him for his love and hard work for my dearest club. After about 10 minutes of him and my dad discussing football, and my mum and Rita discussing Italian food(and me just standing there), Graham told us he was hot and hungry and suggested we go to a bar for some food. 'It's on me, he declared. I need to convince your father that he supports the wrong club'(my dearest dad being a Leicester fan).So with that, we went to a lovely cafe Graham knew, ate wonderful pizza and drank prosecco throughout the afternoon until the early evening. I remember how entertaining, articulate and genuinely funny he was. His knowledge of Villa put mine to shame. This was just after the end of the 2009-2010 season and he absolutely loved Ashley Young. He was still fuming about Vidic at Wembley, too. We invited him back to the house I was living in in Padova at the time, and he accepted.Two hours later, Graham, Rita, my mum and dad, plus me and 6 Italian housemates were sat in our kitchen, playing guitar, feasting and talking about Villa. He didn't bat an eyelid when my Palestinian friend brought out a Shisha pipe and added a little hashish to the bowl. I simply could not believe it. Couldn't believe how much he loved us, the fans, either. At the end of the night, Graham politely excused himself and that was the last time I ever saw him. One of the true legends of my life.Despite a small language barrier-my housemates didn't speak English wonderfully, neither did I have much command of the Italian language at that point, I assumed they had understood who he was. I was wrong. They thought he was my uncle, and it's still a running joke to this day, especially after they checked exactly who he was online. To those 6 housemates, he is my 'super brilliant uncle from Aston Villa'.Brilliant man, brilliant. I loved him.I feel extremely sad today.Rest in peace Graham, you'll never be forgotten. I'll try digging out some photos of that evening and will post them on here when I do.And thank you for everything.
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Topic: Sir Graham Taylor (Read 102586 times)
